Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a prevention safety device in course change of small-sized vehicle.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, there has been developed a device and a system that detect obstacles such as automobiles and bikes around one's own vehicle and automatically avoid a collision of one's own vehicle with the obstacles to reduce a load of a driver.
Patent Document 1 discloses a driving assistance device that performs any one of a first driving assistance and a second driving assistance. The first driving assistance is based on a degree of approach of one's own vehicle to a moving body in the case where one's own vehicle continues a current moving state. The second driving assistance is based on the degree of approach of one's own vehicle to the moving body in a virtual state where one's own vehicle changes the current moving state.
Patent Document 2 discloses a vehicle control system that, when detecting an object present at a merging lane, the vehicle control system determines this object as a control target and controls a behavior according to a distance relative to the control target.
Patent Document 3 discloses a collision avoidance system that estimates an action range of an obstacle and creates vehicle motion control information required for one's own vehicle to travel a locus where an entrance of one's own vehicle to the estimated action range can be avoided to assist an operation.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2015-102932
Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2012-51503
Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-191781
The devices and systems disclosed in the above-described Patent Documents detect a forward vehicle via a camera and a radar device. However, in the case where the forward vehicle or the second vehicle ahead is a small-sized vehicle such as a motorcycle, it is assumed that an autonomous vehicle cannot detect the forward vehicle in some cases. Alternatively, in the case where a plurality of small-sized vehicles travel (run side by side) forward adjacent to one's own vehicle, the autonomous vehicle possibly incorrectly detects the state and detects none of the small-sized vehicles. Even in this case, whether the autonomous vehicle detects the small-sized vehicles travelling forward or not cannot be identified from outside.
Meanwhile, it is estimated that the autonomous vehicles will increase from now on in highways. A sudden braking and a sharp turn of a steering wheel in high speed travelling on the highways possibly causes a secondary disaster; therefore, it is difficult for even the autonomous vehicle to perform an urgent evasive action.
In such situation, it is considered that the small-sized vehicle travelling in front of the autonomous vehicle needs to include a prevention safety device for safety travelling. However, conventionally, the prevention safety device appropriate for the small-sized vehicles was not developed.